Creeps
by avesjohn
Summary: In this sequel to/re-imagining of my favorite Goosebumps book, Caitlin Webster is a Florida middle school student who inadvertently runs afoul of the Creeps, and with the help of her friends and family must stop them from converting more humans into the reptilian monsters.
1. Chapter 1

The loud cracking of a fallen pine branch underneath Caitlin's feet may as well have come from a bullet, as she and her target began a frantic chase to see who could outrun the other first. Her white sneakers had lost their color rapidly due to her near-daily excursions out into nature, and the dirt and water that sullied them had traveled its way up her foot to her socks and the bottom of her long pants. The animal she was chasing was over a meter long and pure black save for a white chin, but the fact that it was legless didn't seem to be a hindrance at all.

Behind Caitlin and the snake, hurrying to catch up, were Jim and Serena, the former a tall, muscular man with his brown hair reduced to a buzz cut, who was primarily here to watch over the girls, the latter a slightly shorter, pudgier twelve-year-old than the one she was struggling to capture moving footage of with the video camera in her hand. Navigating their way through the forest, they were finally able to catch a breath when Caitlin raised one arm and shouted, "Over here!"

Caitlin had the snake cornered against a boulder, but at any moment it could make a dash to the side. With this in mind, she silently directed her father and her best friend to each barricade one of these escape routes. She glanced back at the camcorder in Serena's hand, and then used her eyes to remind her to put the focus on the snake. As the creature lifted its neck up and hissed, Caitlin slowly lowered her torso, waiting for the right moment to make a grab. After a narrowly missed snap at her forearm, the snake turned to make another run for it, and this was Caitlin's chance.

In one fluid motion, she placed her foot over the snake's tail, pinning it down as she wrapped her hands around the smooth black scales of the animal's midsection, keeping a firm but gentle grip as she lifted the snake up off the ground. She spread her hands further apart so that more of the snake was under control, though it continued to shake violently, lashing its tail like a whip against her jade green t-shirt. With a happy sigh she turned to face the camera.

The green eyes that looked to her future audience conveyed the sense that she was overjoyed just to be here, despite having done things like this all her life. Smiling, with Serena smiling back at her from the other side of the lens, Caitlin began her lesson by stating the obvious: "Wow, we got lucky, everybody." Holding up the snake to the camera, she explained:

"This is a racer, a southern black racer, to be exact, and I'm hoping you just got a sense of how well they live up to their name. Now, their scientific name is _Coluber constrictor_, but they don't actually constrict their prey, which is mostly rodents, birds, and even other snakes. Instead they pin it down with one of their coils." She paused to admire the reptile writhing in her hands, and continued to do so even as it defecated a foul-smelling white fluid onto her. She giggled involuntarily.

"When they feel threatened, some snakes, like this racer, garter snakes, and others, will release a musk, like the one you see on my clothes right now, to ward off enemies. This species can also make a rattling sound with its tail for the same reason, but they're not venomous," she assured them, shaking her head. She looked into the snake's bright red eyes, trying to imagine how it must feel at this moment. Terrified, no doubt. Caitlin considered herself proud to be among those not disgusted by snakes and other reptiles on principle.

"I think this guy's been through enough for today," she said, and with a nod to the camera, she cautiously lowered the racer onto the ground beside the boulder, and like lightning it disappeared out of sight, scarcely leaving a trail behind on the floor of pine needles. "Until next time, this is Caitlin Webster, signing off."

"And…" Serena said, as Caitlin watched the red light of the camera disappear, "you're off." She removed the camera strap from around her palm and tucked the device inside her pocket.

"Well, that was exciting, wasn't it?" Caitlin said with a grin, wiping some of the racer's musk off her shirt and pants, while Serena expressed her agreement with a nod. "What do you think, Dad?" she said, turning to Jim, who had a familiar mix of bewilderment and pride on his face.

"You know me," he replied in his Southern accent, though it had been hardened by years of military service. "I think you're crazy, but if doing this makes you happy, more power to you."

"Crazy is relative," Serena remarked.

"Yeah," Caitlin said, "it's not like we spend our days trying not to get killed by enemy fire, then coming home and trying not to get killed by regular fire," thus summing up Jim's two major careers quite well.

"But I think she was asking about this particular incident."

"I was."

"See?"

"In that case," Jim said, "I'm just glad it wasn't a poisonous snake you were dealing with."

"Venomous, Dad, venomous," Caitlin corrected him.

"Right, sorry," he said. "What's the difference again?"

"Bites and stings are venom," Caitlin said. "Everything else is poison."

"Bites and stings, right." He glanced back and forth between the two girls, then at his watch. "It's getting late. We should be heading home. Serena, are you staying for dinner, or—"

"Heading home," Serena said.

As the three of them wandered back to Jim's truck through the forest, Caitlin shifted her attention from the ground to the trees, listening to birds making their last calls of the day as the sunlight was fading away. Normally, she would be trying to find and identify them as she did the reptiles and amphibians she'd looked for earlier, but she didn't have her binoculars with her, and in any case was exhausted from a busy weekend that had only been made busier by homework the day before.

Two weeks into the seventh grade, her first taste of middle school, and she needed these outdoor escapes more than ever. No longer did she have only one teacher handing out assignments; now she had six, each running their own show, and they didn't care how much work the others had already given her. At least Mr. Biddle, her science teacher, understood the passion she and Serena had for reptiles. He had the anoles in his room to prove it. When they'd told him they were working on their own nature documentary, he'd even offered them extra credit if they presented it to the class. They were going to need it, that's for sure.

Caitlin turned to look at her father. A lifetime of following orders, first under commanding officers in Iraq and Somalia, and then under more senior firefighters since he'd returned home to Gainesville had left him stoic but strong. He'd seen some horrific things, but nothing had prepared him for the news that broke just the past Tuesday. While driving Caitlin to school that morning, he'd nearly gotten into an accident, so shocked had he been to hear the reporter on the radio describe the scene in New York, the twin towers falling, another plane crashing in Pennsylvania. For all the things he'd done, Caitlin had never seen him look genuinely _scared_. And that was before they even saw the video footage of the attacks.

Seeing her parents, Jim, the former Marine and now firefighter, and Mary-Ann, a police officer for seventeen years, displaying such an uncharacteristic emotion as fear over the past week was humbling for Caitlin. It put things in perspective. Their motivation to help people was stronger than she had ever seen it, and although Caitlin liked to proclaim herself a badass just like them, for daring to handle wild animals, the truth was, she was not the stuff real heroes were made of. Unless you were gathering antivenin from a venomous snake to help save a bite victim, or you somehow managed to rescue someone from the iron jaws of a crocodilian (more than likely getting yourself killed in the process), herpetologists rarely got to save the day.


	2. Chapter 2

Five minutes into third period on Monday, a student walking through the door interrupted Mr. Biddle's lecture on the parts of the cell. He was a tall young man, approaching their bespectacled teacher in height, with his blond hair cut short, and he was dressed all in black, which in this heat and humidity was never a good idea, but the boy didn't seem to care. A toothpick was poking out from the corner of his mouth. With a sigh, Mr. Biddle turned away from the chalkboard to address his new student.

"You must be the new kid?" Mr. Biddle said. He quickly glanced at the list of names on his clipboard. "William Masters?"

"That's right," the boy nodded. "I go by Billy, by the way."

Mr. Biddle raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were British."

"Whatever gave you that idea?" the clearly American-sounding kid replied with a laugh.

"Somebody told me you were British."

"Somebody lied."

Mr. Biddle and Billy stared at each other for a moment, and then the teacher checked off Billy's name with a pen and began looking for a place to seat him. Caitlin glanced at the empty desk next to hers in the center of the classroom, and then back up to the front where Billy was watching; to nobody's surprise, Mr. Biddle directed Billy to claim the unoccupied seat to her right.

"All right, we can continue our lesson," Mr. Biddle said, turning his back to the class to resume writing on the chalkboard.

As soon as the teacher was looking away, Billy leaned back and rested his legs on top of his desk. When he heard Caitlin gasp, he simply glanced back at her and said, "Hey, how's it going?" in an unmistakably British accent.

"Oh my god, you _are_ British!" Caitlin whispered.

"Caitlin!" Mr. Biddle said. "Billy!" Caitlin winced at the prospect of being scolded at by her favorite teacher. "Why are your feet on your desk?" he asked Billy.

"I'm sorry," Billy said. "I guess I'm not used to your strange American customs."

Mr. Biddle gasped. "So you _are_ British!"

"Well, yeah, I told you somebody lied, didn't I?" Billy shrugged. With a smirk, he added, "I just didn't tell you it was me."

"Put your feet down!" he ordered with a motion of his index finger.

"Oh, very well," Billy said, positioning his legs underneath his desk.

"And take that toothpick out of your mouth!"

"I can't. I like having things in my mouth." Another student snickered. Ignoring them, Billy explained, "It helps me to concentrate."

"I get the feeling you weren't concentrating very hard, Billy."

"Of course I wasn't!" For some reason, this confirmation seemed to catch Mr. Biddle by surprise. "I already know all this stuff."

"Is that so?" Mr. Biddle said. "Perhaps you'd like to tell the class what a Golgi body does?"

"I respectfully refuse."

Mr. Biddle paused and shot Billy a rightfully frustrated look. Caitlin buried her head in her hands and leaned her arms on the desk, wishing her new classmate would just shut up and be a good student so everyone would stop looking her way. "How'd you like a trip to the principal's office, Billy?"

"I'd like that very much, actually," Billy said, again shocking their teacher. "I bet another kid five bucks I get sent there before the end of this period."

Caitlin groaned. Her arms fell and her forehead pressed against the top of her desk.

After a moment, during which Mr. Biddle seemed torn between ridding himself of this nuisance of a student and giving the student the satisfaction of winning a bet for it, he asked, "What's your next period, Billy?"

"Ms. Diaz, English." Caitlin recognized the name; that was Serena's English teacher. And she had fourth period. It appeared both girls would have to endure Billy's presence in their classes this year.

"I'm going to give Ms. Diaz a call," Mr. Biddle said, walking towards the phone hanging on the wall near the classroom door. "I'll have her be the one to send you to the office."

"You clever bastard," Billy said. "Bloody brilliant, you are."

"_Hey!_" Caitlin jumped in her seat. She had never heard Mr. Biddle raise his voice before. "I will not tolerate such language in my classroom, young man!"

Billy paused. "That's funny, I thought we were both speaking English."

Mr. Biddle sighed. "You know what, I can't stand it. I'm sending you to the principal right now!" He lifted up the receiver and dialed the office, while Caitlin shook her head, not daring to look up from the comfort of her scratched-up desk.

Suddenly, she felt a warm sensation on her back, and she jumped again. She realized it was Billy's hand.

"There, there, Caitlin," Billy said, while she glared back at him. "I'll be out of your hair soon enough."

"Don't touch me!" she said, and he lifted both hands in a surrendering gesture.

"To the office, Billy," Mr. Biddle ordered.

Billy reached for the backpack he'd set on the tiled floor beside his chair and stood up. "You're a good man, Mr. Biddle," he nodded. "I look forward to many informative lessons from you this year."

"_Out!_" the teacher snapped, and Billy made his way to the door.

* * *

When the hour was over, and other students were departing the classroom for their fourth period classes, Caitlin delayed acting on this impulse to talk to Mr. Biddle. As he was sorting through some papers on his desk at the back of the room, she waited in line behind a few other students. She turned to admire the pair of small lizards in a terrarium at her right. About a half-foot in length, they were bright green save for the white around the lips, with one of the lizards sporting a reddish flap on his throat.

"Nice chameleons," one boy standing behind her said.

Caitlin rolled her eyes and sighed. Without turning around to see who'd made this common mistake, she corrected him: "We've been through this. They're not chameleons. They're anoles."

"They still change colors like chameleons," the boy said.

"Hardly," Caitlin said. "Compared to a chameleon, anoles have very limited color-changing ability. Whereas anoles can only waver between greens and browns, chameleons can cover virtually the whole spectrum. And that's not even getting into all the other differences between the two…"

"Caitlin?" Mr. Biddle said, and that's when she realized her time had come.

"Oh," she said, walking up to his desk. "Yeah, hi. Look, I just wanted to apologize for earlier—"

"You? Apologize?" he said with a chuckle. "For what _Billy_ did?"

"Well, I was talking to him, while you were trying to teach the class…"

"You spoke _once_," Mr. Biddle said, "and I don't blame you for it. You didn't know he was lying any more than I did! At least now we know better." He set down his red pen, which was grading last week's homework assignments from another period. "Would you like me to move his seat somewhere else?"

"No, it's fine," Caitlin said. She brushed away the offer with a wave of her hand.

"How's that documentary you and Serena are making coming along?" he asked.

"It's coming." The two of them honestly had no idea what their final product would look like or how long it would take to get there, since at this point all they were doing was filming themselves when they encountered wildlife, a task that was hard enough as is.

"That's good." Looking towards the clock in the center wall of the room, he remarked: "You should be heading to your next class."

Realizing she was going to have to hurry to make it to her world history class before the next bell rang, she made a dash for the door. It was while making this turn away from Mr. Biddle's desk that she noticed another of his students was staring at her. A short, dark-haired boy with big glasses couldn't seem to take his eyes off her. Caitlin didn't know who he was, or what it was about her that had caught his attention, but she didn't have time to think about it. She was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

When sixth period classes ended at 3:30 in the afternoon, Caitlin met Serena near the school's eastern gates to walk home together as they had been doing since their first day here. Unfortunately, due to scheduling quirks, these best friends would be separated from each other during lunch breaks this semester, with Caitlin having her free half-hour between second and third periods, and Serena having hers between third and fourth. It was obviously nothing more than the randomized action of a computer, but it still felt like the world was intentionally trying to make the adjustment to middle school that much more difficult. In any case, it made finally seeing each other again at the end of the day that much more satisfying.

That didn't stop Caitlin from starting their conversation on a bitter note. "So," she groaned, "did you meet the new kid in your English class today?"

"How did—"

"I have him in my science class," Caitlin said with a nod, biting her lip. "Yeah. Lucky me."

"William Masters?" Serena asked, just to be sure they were talking about the same kid. "Billy? The British kid?"

"Yup, him. Obnoxious, isn't he?"

As the two of them walked past the school grounds, Serena raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "He seemed fine to me."

"You're telling me he didn't cause you _any_ trouble?" an incredulous Caitlin said, pressing the button to cross the street as they headed north.

"No." The light switched from red to green, and the two girls continued walking. "Ms. Diaz introduced him, then she had him sit at a desk near the front of the room, and that was that. No problems whatsoever."

"The principal must have talked some sense into him."

"How did you know he was in my class?"

In the time it took them to reach the next crosswalk, Caitlin explained what had happened earlier that day, which caused Serena's mouth to drop open, as it was her turn to be in disbelief. It was as though they had met two entirely different people, and Caitlin had had the misfortune to meet the evil twin instead of the good one. With luck, the good twin was here to stay, but somehow, Caitlin didn't expect such luck to last.

"I don't believe it," Serena said while they waited for cars to pass by.

"I'm sure you'll believe me soon enough," Caitlin said. "He's a jerk."

There was a strange pause after Caitlin made this observation, which ended when Serena made an even stranger observation. "Really?" she said. "I actually thought he was kind of cute."

Caitlin stared at Serena.

"Light's green," Serena said, but she had give Caitlin a decent nudge before anything was done about this development.

They were halfway across when Caitlin finally got around to reacting. "You're kidding, right?" she said with a chuckle. "Trying to get a laugh at my expense? 'Cause it worked." But Serena wasn't laughing. "You can drop the act now."

"I'm not acting," Serena said as if she was making sense and Caitlin was the crazy one. "You saw him. He's not bad looking."

As much as it pained her to admit it, Caitlin softly muttered, "I guess not." In a more confident tone, she was quick to add, "But personality goes a long way, Serena."

"Well, you saw a different personality than I did. And frankly," Serena said in what appeared to be a surprise even to herself, "I think I'd still find him cute even if I did see what you saw."

Caitlin scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Tell me you're not going to fall for the bad boy routine."

"Why not? You did." As Caitlin gasped at this accusation, Serena needed only a single word to nullify the shock. "Spike?"

"Spike?" Caitlin said. "From _Buffy_?"

"Who else do we know that goes by that name, Caitlin?"

"Okay, okay, time out," Caitlin declared, making a T-sign with her hands. "Spike is a character on a TV show. Just because I think someone is cute on TV doesn't mean I'd be attracted to a person like that in real life! Besides, he's a one hundred and forty-year old murderous vampire!"

"Yeah, but he still looks good without a shirt on."

"You know what I just realized?"

"That he _does_ looks good without a shirt on?"

"No! Well, yes." After taking a moment to process that mental image, Caitlin made her point. "Spike's actor is James Marsters, isn't it?" Serena nodded. They reached another crosswalk, their second-to-last before reaching the block where they would part ways. "The new kid's name is William _Masters_. No 'r'."

"Weird," Serena said. Seeing where Caitlin was going with this train of thought, she continued for her: "And the way he looks and—according to you—behaves, he's a lot like Spike. That's some coincidence."

Caitlin laughed. "Just a coincidence?"

"I don't think it'd make sense if it were anything else."

"Either way," Caitlin said, not wanting to delve into outlandish theories, "someone wasn't very creative."

The pair soon reached the intersection where they would separate. Caitlin was about to say goodbye to Serena until next time and walk away, but Serena grabbed her arm and forced her to stay a minute longer. "I think you're in denial, Caitlin."

"About what?"

"I think you like Billy, too."

Caitlin let out another hearty chuckle. "No, I don't."

"He looks and acts like Spike! Why _wouldn't_ you like him?"

"Because he embarrassed me in front of everybody?" Caitlin said. "Because he treated my favorite teacher like crap? Because he thinks he's better than everyone else? I could go on."

"In that case," Serena said, shrugging and clearly not convinced by the ample evidence Caitlin had presented, "you wouldn't mind if I, say, went up and talked to him?"

"I can't stop you," Caitlin remarked. "But if I were you, I wouldn't do it."

"Okay," Serena nodded. "I'll let you know how it goes."

"Don't say I didn't give you fair warning."

"All right. See you."

"See you," Caitlin said, giving Serena a wave goodbye as they took off in opposite directions.

* * *

While sitting on the floor in her bedroom working on her math homework for the night, a series of algebraic word problems that were mostly fairly easy on account of it still being the beginning of the school year, Rage Against The Machine's "Guerilla Radio" blasted from the CD player resting on Caitlin's desk. This combined with the yellow Gadsden flag hanging over her bed might give the wrong impression to the uninitiated, that she was vehemently anti-authority, but this was hardly the case.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Caitlin's affinity for reptiles could explain the presence of the flag: it depicted a timber rattlesnake and proclaimed, "Don't Tread On Me," which was good advice whether you were dealing with a venomous snake or pissed-off revolutionaries. As for Rage, well, it was true she wasn't supposed to be listening to such music—her parents were certainly unaware that their daughter owned all four albums—but she'd heard "Bulls On Parade" on the radio one day about a year ago, and damn it, good music was good music. It was too bad she'd only discovered the band after they'd broken up, but that's just the way life goes.

Unaware of how much time had passed since she'd returned home, Caitlin's ears perked up when she heard a car pulling into the driveway. Since her father worked irregular hours while firefighting, she assumed it must be her mother, and she scrambled to switch the album in her CD player and slid _The Battle of Los Angeles_ under her bed with the other forbidden music. Not a minute after Less Than Jake's _Hello Rockview_ had begun, the front door opened and Mary-Ann Webster soon greeted Caitlin in her room.

"Hi," she said. Mary-Ann was a short, somewhat heavy woman with blacker hair than Jim, and was dressed in her full police officer uniform, which was all black from the many-pocketed shirt down the pants to her shoes, except for a silver badge over her left breast and a golden police department logo on each of her shoulders.

"Hi, Mom," Caitlin replied with a smile that was genuine but still masked recent guilt. She hoped that Mary-Ann wouldn't notice, and she didn't, instead simply nodding to acknowledge that they'd exchanged hellos.

"How was school today?" she asked. "Anything interesting happen?"

Caitlin was unsure whether or not she should share her embarrassment in science class following Billy's entrance. After a moment's hesitation, she elected to keep quiet about it. "Not much," she said with a shaking of her head. She gestured at her homework and added, "Just the usual."

"Need any help?" Mary-Ann said.

"No thanks, I got this."

"If you say so. By the way, your father called me at work today. He's going to be on call at the fire station tonight, so we won't see him until tomorrow."

"Okay."

Clearly, this conversation was going nowhere substantial. In an effort to end the awkwardness, Caitlin did what any logical person would do and brought up a touchy subject.

"Mom?" she said just as Mary-Ann was beginning to turn away. "I want to talk to you about getting another pet."

Mary-Ann gave her daughter a familiar skeptical look and replied, with a significant glance at the Gadsden flag overhead, "When you say 'pet,' do you mean a snake?" Caitlin didn't even have to answer; her hesitation to confirm Mary-Ann's suspicion was all that was needed. "We've been through this, Caitlin. Not in _my_ house."

"But this isn't _just_ your house, Mom!"

"You're right. It's _our_ home—all of us. And having you and Jim here when I come home from the things I see and hear about at work is what keeps me sane. Even if you just kept the snake in your room, if there was a snake living here, it would only take away from that sense of security I need to feel when I'm at home."

"Mom, you carry a gun."

"Right. And how do you think I would feel if I had to fire it inside my own home?"

"You wouldn't have to. That's the point. They're not going to hurt you."

"They still give me the heebie-jeebies. Why can't you get something like a frog, or a turtle?"

"Because frogs are noisy and the damn turtle would outlive us all."

"What's wrong with getting another parakeet?"

"For starters, it's not a snake."

Once again, the conversation had reached a standstill and there was no way Caitlin could conceivably win this argument. The two of them acknowledged this with a shared glance, leaving Caitlin to resume her homework and Mary-Ann to exit the room and change into more casual clothing. Somewhere, someone who wasn't Caitlin was playing Rage Against The Machine and stroking their pet snake with parents who weren't so uptight.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, Billy arrived to third period and took his seat next to Caitlin without incident. Everyone else had seen the way he'd acted the day before, and she knew she couldn't be the only one in class to be a little unnerved by this drastic change in behavior. In a rather ironic turn of events, she almost wished for him to return to yesterday's antics so she could stop worrying about when he would act up again, a state of mind that was preventing her from giving Mr. Biddle the full attention he deserved as he began today's lesson. After the span of a few minutes that felt much longer, Caitlin decided to be proactive and stop Billy before he could start.

She extended her hand over to his desk and grabbed his arm, stopping him in the middle of taking notes. He turned his head to look at her. In a whisper, she explained, without giving him the chance to interrupt, "Listen up, Billy. My best friend, Serena Osborne, she and you both have Ms. Diaz for English, and for some _ungodly_ reason, she seems to think you're cute. Some time soon, maybe later today, she's going to try to talk to you." Billy's face remained expressionless as his pretty blue eyes locked into a gaze at her greens. "As her best friend, I'm warning you not to treat her like a jerk. You've already given me plenty of reasons not to like you, and I don't think you want to give me any more. Understand?"

It was only when she'd finished her rant that Caitlin realized Billy's free left arm had been slowly raising itself into the air as she was talking.

"Yes, Billy?" Mr. Biddle said. Caitlin quickly released Billy's other arm and pretended to be paying attention the whole time.

"Caitlin won't stop talking to me," Billy said.

"Oh, _come on_!" Caitlin gasped, as Mr. Biddle gave her a disciplinary shake of his head.

"And also," Billy added, before the teacher could say anything, "the Golgi body packages proteins created by the rough endoplasmic reticulum before sending them off to different parts of the cell. Basically, it's a post office."

Mr. Biddle—and much of the rest of the class, including Caitlin—could only stare at Billy.

"That's the answer to the question I asked you yesterday," Mr. Biddle said.

"Yes, it is," Billy said.

"But what makes you think I'd accept that answer _now_?"

"Because I'm your son."

Anyone that had been ignoring Billy a moment ago couldn't look away from him after he said this.

"No, you're not!" Mr. Biddle scoffed.

"Worth a shot," Billy mumbled, shrugging and glancing at Caitlin, who rolled her eyes but was strangely relieved that he was back in form.

"Mr. Biddle, can I talk to you after class?" Caitlin said, raising her own hand.

"Sure, Caitlin," he replied, nodding. "Billy, be quiet."

"I wasn't the one talking, _she_ was!" Billy said, pointing an accusatory finger at Caitlin.

"She's not the one I'm worried about."

"But _Dad_!"

"_Stop!_" Mr. Biddle ordered him. "I am _not_ your father, and you know it! If you want to talk to your _real_ dad, maybe we can send you to the principal's office again."

"But he's not my Dad, either."

The vein in Mr. Biddle's neck was starting to throb a ghastly purplish red.

"See me after class, Billy."

* * *

Caitlin was incredibly nervous approaching Mr. Biddle at his desk when the period ended, on account of Billy being there with her. They didn't say a word to each other, but somehow they ended up sharing a glance acknowledging their mutual predicament. The fact that her presence here was voluntary and his was not didn't comfort her, so she turned her eyes toward the anoles in the terrarium again. If there was one thing that made her feel safe, it was the natural world, even if the part of the world she was looking at had been confined to a glass case with an artificial environment. At least this lizard was a native of Florida and not one of the innumerable exotic creatures their state had been plagued by since human arrival.

"You first, Billy," Mr. Biddle ordered with an annoyed sigh.

In sidestepping away from Billy to get closer to the terrarium, she bumped into another student walking up to the lizards from behind her. "Sorry!" she said quickly, and when she turned around to face him, she realized he was the same short boy with glasses that had been staring at her yesterday. "Oh," she mumbled in disappointment. "It's you."

"Elliott," the boy told her. "My name is Elliott."

Mr. Biddle was giving Billy a stern talking-to. Caitlin tried not to listen. She kept her eyes firmly on the anoles, watching as one of them, which was currently brown, used its toes to cling to the wall of the case directly facing her. The other anole was green and crawling about the wood chips on the bottom of the terrarium, near a small pool carved out of a gray rock.

But the fact that she was being watched, too, was steadily distracting her. After resisting the impulse as much as she could, she finally gave in and looked back at Elliott. "Okay, what is it?" she said. "Why are you always staring at me, Elliott?"

Elliott's mouth dropped open, and she noticed his arms and legs beginning to shake. She'd made him nervous. The timid young boy made faint sounds like he was going to answer her, but he never said anything. Apparently trying to be polite, he nodded and calmly walked past her and Billy towards the classroom door.

"Creep," Caitlin uttered, returning her gaze towards the lizards. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Elliott had suddenly stopped in his tracks halfway through the doorway and was once again giving her another stare, though this time it seemed like he was genuinely frightened of her, and no longer just intensely curious. As soon as she turned her head to look back at him, he ran out of sight.

"I think he fancies you," Billy remarked.

"What?" Caitlin said, suddenly back in the real world.

Billy, who was putting a purple lollipop in his mouth, added, "You have an admirer."

Caitlin chuckled. "Not the best way of showing it. Maybe you and him can get together and start a club for people who annoy me."

"Maybe," Billy said with a shrug, stepping aside to let her speak to Mr. Biddle. "He's all yours, love."

"Don't call me that," Caitlin said. With Billy standing behind her, while a crowd of increasingly noisy fourth period students poured into the classroom, she was finally able to make the request she'd been keeping quiet about through all of last period. "Mr. Biddle, I'd like you to move Billy's seat."

"I already have," the teacher replied, surprising her. "That was one of the things Billy and I talked about. I anticipated your going back on yesterday's offer."

"Where is he now?"

"Behind you," Billy answered.

"I meant your _seat_," Caitlin said, briefly glancing back towards him.

"Front of the class."

"So I can keep a close watch," Mr. Biddle nodded, though he didn't seem entirely convinced this was going to make things any easier for him.

"Well, thanks, then," Caitlin said. "That's really all I wanted to ask."

"I'll write you a hall pass," he added, removing from a square pad a bright yellow piece of paper marked "HALL PASS" with blanks for the names of the teacher and student involved and filling in the blank spaces. "Just in case this delay makes you late for your next class," he said as Caitlin took the pass from his hand.

"Thanks again," she said, heading for the door. She saw him filling out another pass for Billy, and then hurried to the other side of the building for her history class.


	5. Chapter 5

Meeting at the east gates of the school as usual, Caitlin was once again the one to initiate the conversation with Serena on the way home. "So, how'd it go?" she asked.

"How'd what go?" Serena asked in return.

"You know, the talk with Billy!"

"Oh, that." She took a moment to consider how best to answer Caitlin's inquiry. "Well, first of all, you should know that he and I are going to have plenty of time to get to know each other this semester."

"Why's that?" a somewhat worried Caitlin said.

"Ms. Diaz divided the class into groups today," she explained. "Four or five of us per group. While we're reading books this year, our group members are going to be the ones we mostly discuss things with. When we come back next semester, we'll switch up and have new group members."

"Let me guess," Caitlin said, "Billy's in your group."

Serena nodded. "Yeah, but we were randomly assigned. I didn't plan on it. It's just a nice coincidence."

"Did you talk to him?" Caitlin began, now that the "how" of Serena's luck had been established. "About non-school stuff?"

"Yes," she said, "and that's where you come in." Caitlin silently expressed her puzzlement at this revelation, and Serena obliged with an explanation. "Once we got to talking, he said that he'd been warned not to treat me like a jerk. By _you_."

"And?" Caitlin said. "Did he?"

"You're missing the point, Caitlin," Serena said, placing an arm in Caitlin's path to get her attention. Looking at the frown hanging from her friend's face, she was told, "You interfered."

"I was looking out for you!"

"I can take care of myself."

"What kind of friend would I be if I let you face the same crap I did?"

"Your intentions may have been good," Serena said, "but I think you might have just made things worse for me."

"By telling him not to be obnoxious?"

"He _wasn't_ obnoxious. In fact, he was quite civil."

"So what's the problem?" Caitlin asked.

"After he started talking about you," Serena said, pausing before mentioning, "that's _all_ he wanted to talk about."

"Me?" Caitlin said. "Why _me_?"

"You must have made an impression."

"What did he want to know?"

"Anything, really."

"What did you tell him?"

"I tried not to tell him anything." Caitlin wasn't sure whether or not she should be offended by Serena's inaction. "I almost wanted to lie to him." Now Caitlin was wondering what kind of lies Serena could have told him. "Fortunately, we had work to do with the rest of the group, and I didn't have to tell him anything. But that doesn't change the fact that you interfered and stole my thunder."

"You have thunder?" Caitlin said.

"Yes, and you stole it!"

"Well, I didn't mean to!"

"It doesn't matter," Serena said, shrugging as she pushed a button for a crosswalk. "He'll be spending a lot more time with me. That's why I won't be walking home with you tomorrow."

"Huh?" Caitlin said as they crossed the street.

"Our English group is meeting up tomorrow after school," Serena added. Caitlin was relieved it wouldn't be just him and her, especially after having accidentally incited jealousy in the former—an unfounded jealousy that she was afraid could make Serena do something stupid. "We're all going to my place to work on some stuff."

"So he's going to be at your house?" Caitlin said. That seemed like a strange place to take a group of classmates, when there was a much better option right on school grounds. "Why not just go to the library?"

"Because it's more convenient."

"Isn't the library convenient enough?"

"Not for everyone. Is it really that big a deal that he knows where I live?"

"Maybe not for you. But I wouldn't want to be in your shoes."

"Are you sure about that?" Serena said.


	6. Chapter 6

After the craziness of the beginning of the week, Wednesday started out as a welcome relief from the otherwise annoying behavior of Billy and Elliott, with the former kept in check at his new seat by Mr. Biddle, and the latter nowhere in sight as Caitlin looked around the classroom in third period. There was the grating knowledge in the back of her mind that Billy would probably make up for today's chivalry when he pestered Serena about Caitlin at her house this afternoon, but for now, she was free to relax and enjoy her favorite class again.

Even when the school day ended and she was forced to walk home alone, Caitlin remained in good spirits, whilst still feeling sorry for what Serena must be going through. Whatever chaos Billy caused in school must be nothing compared to what he does when there are no authority figures to prevent him from acting up. If he didn't respect his teachers, what chance was there that he'd treat his peers any differently? Sooner or later, Billy was going to learn the hard way that if he really wanted to learn more about Caitlin, he'd have to get his act together. Given her own affection for Billy, Serena probably wouldn't disclose anything to him, but Caitlin herself would be willing to hold a conversation with the boy if he could at least treat her with some modicum of respect. She smiled at the idea of such a conversation being struck between them: a fantasy, to be sure, but not as unlikely as some she'd imagined.

She was two blocks from home when a black minivan pulled up to where she was walking along the sidewalk. Curious, she stopped what she was doing and watched as the driver's window rolled down, revealing a tall boy who looked to be in his late teens, with green eyes and wavy black hair, wearing a plain red t-shirt and a deadly serious look on his face. "Get in the car," he ordered Caitlin.

Caitlin scoffed. Not even bothering to wonder what he was up to, she continued walking and remarked, "No thanks."

"How about now?" he said as she heard another window on the vehicle rolling down. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that it was the left passenger window, and she wouldn't have given it another thought if she hadn't seen someone being threatened with a knife in the middle of the back seat. With a soft gasp, she turned around and saw that it was Elliott. At his left, pressing the knife to his neck was a slightly shorter teenager, a blond boy with brown eyes and a heavier build than the driver. Sitting on the other side of the blond kid, at Elliott's right was a black girl with her hair tied back in a ponytail. All three passengers said nothing, silently goading her into joining them in the empty front passenger seat, and while Elliott's reasons for this were obvious, the older kids' motivation was less clear. "I said get in," the driver repeated.

"What the hell are you doing?" Caitlin said. "Let him go!"

"I'll let him go when you get in." She heard the car doors unlock. "Well, Caitlin?"

Reluctantly, she hurried over to the front passenger door and stepped inside. The blond kid lowered the knife, relieving both Caitlin and Elliott, and the dark-haired boy immediately began driving off. Behind her, she heard her door lock.

"Hey!" Caitlin said. "You mind telling me what the hell is going on here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," the driver replied, giving her a stern look. "But first, some introductions. I'm Ricky, Ricky Beamer. You've already met my cousin, Elliott. And those two are Brenda and Eddie."

She glanced into the back seat for another look at the teenagers on either side of Elliott. Unable to resist making the obvious joke, Caitlin asked, "Does Billy Joel know about you two?" before returning her attention to Ricky. Glaring at him, she said, "I can't believe you'd threaten your own cousin like that."

"I had to make you get into the car _somehow_," Ricky said. "You didn't sound like the type who'd come willingly."

"I didn't know people willingly came along for kidnappings."

"Who said this was a kidnapping?" Ricky chuckled. "I'll return you right back home when we're done."

"Done with _what_?" Caitlin said, not certain she wanted to know what the answer was.

"How did you know he was a Creep?"

"What?" This was definitely not something she'd expected to hear.

"Yesterday at school," Ricky explained, "Elliott said you called him a Creep. How did you know?"

"Is _that_ what this is about?" Caitlin said with her own chuckle, looking from Ricky over to Elliott and back. "I called him a creep because he's always staring at me!"

"Right. But why do you think he's always staring at you?"

Caitlin gave Elliott another glance, and then remembered what Billy had said the day before. "Because he fancies me?"

Ricky nodded. "That's one reason. Not that it would ever work out between you two."

"Well," Caitlin said, "certainly not now that I've met his family."

"Yeah, but we can change that."

"I don't think so," Caitlin said, shaking her head.

"Look, Caitlin," Ricky said, as Caitlin looked out of the car for a moment and realized they were headed into downtown Gainesville somewhere, "the reason Elliott's been staring at you is because he thinks you can help us."

"With what, finding you guys a psychiatrist?"

"Don't you get it?" Ricky said, slamming his hand down on the steering wheel. "It's because of who you are. You love reptiles." Now Caitlin was hopelessly confused. "He thinks you're the perfect person to help bridge the gap!"

"What gap?"

"Between humans and Creeps!"

There was a long silence as Caitlin processed this revelation, before she released a long, drawn-out, "_Oh._"

"Well?" Ricky said.

"So you _do_ need a psychiatrist," she replied.

Ricky sighed as they pulled up to a red light. "You don't even know what a Creep is, do you?" He turned to look at the others sitting behind him in disappointment.

"I'm thinking I probably won't like it."

"Of course you will! You _love_ reptiles!"

"Why do you keep saying that?" Caitlin said. "Yes, I love reptiles! I love amphibians and birds, too! What's that got to do with anything?"

"When we get to where we'll going," Ricky said, "we'll show you."


	7. Chapter 7

A few minutes later, Ricky parked the minivan by the door of a large warehouse in a shady-looking part of town. He ordered Caitlin to follow them as he and the others made their way into the building. With a sigh, she stepped out of the car, leaving her backpack behind, and did as she was told.

They led her through a series of turns in a hallway before reaching their destination: the large, open space that made up most of the area of the building. And occupying most of that space was rows and rows of what looked like tall plants, being nurtured by mist sprayers and parallel rows of lighting up above. Standing beside the plants, gently inspecting them with her fingers was a young woman with long, curly red hair, who looked a few years older than the other teenagers Caitlin had met in the car. When the redheaded woman turned to see the stranger accompanying her friends, she stopped what she was doing and stormed over to talk to Ricky.

Grabbing Ricky's arm hard enough to make him utter a gasp of pain, she demanded, with a furious glance at Caitlin, "Who the hell is she?"

"This is Caitlin," Ricky answered, after forcing the woman to release him. Rubbing his arm to soothe the sudden redness, he continued, "A classmate of Elliott's. He said she could tell he was a Creep. So we decided we'd bring her here, so we could get her on our side. Don't you remember? We talked about this yesterday, Tasha."

"I seem to recall saying it was a bad idea, Ricky," Tasha said. She looked at Caitlin again, shaking her head.

"Yes, but I'm in charge," he said. "Which means I make all the big decisions."

"If you say so," Tasha grumbled. "Brenda, Eddie? Your thoughts on this?"

"He's the Commander," Eddie said, while Brenda nodded in agreement.

"We should do what he says."

"Of course we should," Tasha said, her tone indicating otherwise.

"Well," Caitlin said, deciding the best course of action would be to play along until she had a chance to contact the authorities, "I'm here now. How can I help?"

"Who said you could help us?"

"Ricky did," she added, causing Tasha to once again shoot their Commander a disapproving glance. "Something about bridging the gap between Creeps and humans?"

"I doubt you'll be any good at that if you don't even know what a Creep is," Tasha said, circling Caitlin.

"Right," Caitlin said. "So, who wants to show me?"

"_Show_ you?" Tasha said. She turned to Ricky and asked, "You were planning on _showing_ her? Don't you think she's seen enough already?"

"No," Ricky and Caitlin said simultaneously, albeit for entirely different reasons, but both drawing ire from the one asking the question.

"How do we know we can trust you, Caitlin?" Tasha said. She was about to answer, but was quickly cut off by Tasha. "Shut up. We can't. And _you_ know we can't. The problem is, _Ricky_ doesn't seem to know that."

"But he's your Commander."

"He issues commands. That alone doesn't make him Commander."

Suddenly, Ricky grabbed Tasha's shoulder and pulled her away from Caitlin. "Hey, enough."

"Fine," Tasha said, coolly stepping aside. "We'll handle this your way."

"First things first," Ricky said. "I _am_ the Commander of the Creeps, no matter what anyone else says. I stopped taking orders from Tasha a long time ago."

"When did you take orders from Tasha?"

"It's not important. What is important is that you understand who we are. Brenda?" Hearing her name called, the black teenager nodded and joined the two of them. "Tell Caitlin about the Seeds," Ricky said. He made way for Brenda to take his place next to Caitlin, and the two girls walked over to the plants growing nearby.

Caitlin found it increasingly harder to breathe the closer she and Brenda got to the plants. She looked up to see the vaguely lime-colored mist being sprayed over the plants, which seemed to blend with the bright lights that shined down, and reasoned that whatever was in the mist was causing her to have this trouble. The cough this mist induced grew rapidly, and her entire body started to feel weighted down as the mist entered her lungs. Fearing she might faint, her eyes tearing up, Caitlin stepped away from the plants until she was at a safe distance, where the air was cleaner.

Inspecting the stalks from what seemed like the nearest comfortable vantage point, a distance of about ten feet, Caitlin found that the plants were unlike any she had ever seen. Each one stood a little taller than a full-grown man, with purple and brown splotching all over their dark green stalks, extending onto their small, thin, diamond-shaped leaves, which were attached singly to and shot upwards from the main stalks. Hanging from the base of the leaves were semi-circular green or brown pods accompanied by sea anemone-shaped pink and white structures, presumably flowers of some kind.

"In order for someone to become a Creep, they need to eat one of these Identity Seeds," Brenda, who like Tasha was able to walk through the mist unharmed, explained as she reached up the stalk of the nearest plant into a half-open pod. She removed a few of the seeds, which to Caitlin's eyes looked exactly like chocolate chips, though it was safe to say the taste and the aftereffects left by it were probably much different. "Just one seed is all it takes. And then, they're slaves to whoever is in command." She looked to Ricky and then back to Caitlin, who inspected a seed in her fingers.

"How?" Caitlin asked, putting the seed back into Brenda's palm.

"How what?"

"Everything," Caitlin said. "What you're saying violates a lot of natural laws."

"She's a scientist?" Tasha said from behind them.

"Naturalist," Caitlin said. "Herpetology, mostly."

"How can you be a scientist? You're what, twelve years old?"

Caitlin nodded and replied, "Obviously, I don't have any degrees yet, but I've read lots of books and spent a lot of time in the field looking for animals. I know my stuff."

"Then tell us your stuff," Eddie said.

"Okay," Caitlin said. "For starters, a human eating one of these seeds can't just turn into a Creep. One species can't just switch into another. The only way for a species to increase its numbers is through reproduction."

"Who says we're another species?" Ricky said.

"Exactly," Caitlin said, turning around to face the others. "You're humans, just like me. You're not Creeps, you're delusional. This is all some kind of mass delusion."

"Then how do you explain the plants?" Tasha said.

Caitlin shrugged. "I can't. I'm not a botanist. One of them would probably know what they are." Something about this statement rang false in Caitlin's mind, as she thought about her inability to breathe in the mist feeding the plants. Nevertheless, as a scientist, she was inclined to believe only that which had solid evidence to back it up. "But I know this much—eating one of those seeds certainly won't turn a person into a Creep. Whatever that is."

"I think it's time we showed her," Ricky said to Tasha.

She nodded in response. "Finally, we can agree on something."

Caitlin rolled her eyes and began heading for the door.

"_Stop her,_" Ricky's suddenly much deeper voice bellowed, and Caitlin heard someone running after her.

Despite increasing her pace and being taller and faster to begin with, Caitlin was somehow beat in the race to the door by Elliott. He shook his head, seemingly asserting his authority over her, but she could see in his eyes that as suddenly as Ricky's voice had changed, Elliott's fear had grown. Granted, for a boy like him it couldn't that difficult to make him even _more_ timid, but still Caitlin brushed off this sign that something more than his cousin's voice had changed. She ignored Elliott, and attempted to push him out of her way. "_Move!_" she barked.

"No," Elliott said.

"It's great that you're showing some backbone for once," Caitlin said, while the footsteps of the older kids approached her from behind. "But I have to go, Elliott."

She watched Elliott's eyes move from Caitlin to the teenagers whose shadows loomed over her, and then she felt one of the others place their hand on her left shoulder. She felt a jab of pain as something sharp poked her skin through her shirt. The hand felt strangely inhuman resting on her body, somehow heavier and warmer, and her casual glance at the hand revealed that this sensation had not just been her imagination at work.

The hand was no longer covered by soft flesh, but glossy purplish-green scales, each about the size of a quarter, growing smaller as they traveled down the fingers, which ended not in smoothly rounded nails, but in long claws, one pressed against the back of her neck and the other four dangling just above her breast. In this short moment, Caitlin understood why Elliott had been so curious about her watching the anoles in Mr. Biddle's room, why her innocuous insult had been so misinterpreted, and why she'd been brought here. She knew she would eventually have to face her captors and what awaited her when she did, but that didn't make it any easier to muster up the courage to do so. Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned around—and screamed.


	8. Chapter 8

The whole drive back into the suburbs, Caitlin could scarcely look away from Ricky for a moment, out of fear that he might change back into a Creep. At least when he and his friends were human, she felt she could cope. This fear that they might turn again thankfully proved to be unfounded—they were driving on public roads, in full view of other people, and a secret race wanting to remain as such would do well to avoid exposing their true identity here. Not that it would remain a secret much longer. Her plan from earlier to contact the authorities hadn't changed—but the matters at stake had far exceeded what she'd been originally planned on reporting.

At last, Ricky pulled up to the address Caitlin had given him upon leaving the warehouse. She breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to open the passenger door of the minivan before she realized it was locked. She pulled on the handle a few more times in the distant hope she was mistaken.

"You're not getting out just yet," Ricky said. "We need to set a few rules first. Rules I expect you to follow."

"I'm not one of your slaves, Ricky," Caitlin said.

"You'd better do what he says," Brenda said.

"The first rule," Ricky said. "You aren't going to tell _anyone_ about what you saw today. Not your friends, not your family, nobody."

"Why would she?" Eddie said. "It's not like they'd believe her!" He laughed, and Ricky and Brenda joined in.

Elliott however, kept quiet, once again distancing himself from the other Creeps. While Caitlin found this slightly reassuring, she wasn't the only one to notice that Elliott was the odd one out.

"You're not much of a team player, Elliott," Ricky said.

"He just doesn't like that we're putting his crush in this uncomfortable position," Brenda added.

"Uncomfortable," Caitlin said, "yeah, that's one way of putting it."

"It's not just that," Elliott said.

"So you admit that she _is_ your crush?" Ricky said, looking from Elliott to Caitlin, who turned away to ignore them.

"I never asked to be a Creep in the first place, you guys."

"Sure, you may not have asked for it," Ricky said, "but think of how much better off you are now. You're stronger, faster, _better_ than you were as a human." He paused for a moment, and then added, "Which makes the fact that you never seem to change into a Creep that much stranger."

"I don't change because I don't _want_ to," Elliott said. "I _like_ being a human."

"One thing you and I have in common," Caitlin said.

"I wouldn't get used to it," Ricky snarled at them. "Now, the second rule," he said to Caitlin, gripping her arm forcefully. "When the time comes, and the Identity Seeds are ready to be planted to make new Creeps, you're going to help us. Harvest should be within the week. We'll give you a call."

Caitlin scoffed, partially to mask the terror she felt as Ricky's hand tightened over her arm. "How? You don't even know my number."

"You'll give it to us," Brenda said.

"Elliott will be happy to have that," Eddie snickered.

"_Shut up,_" Elliott mumbled.

"And besides," Ricky continued, glancing past Caitlin to look at her house, "we know where you live." He released Caitlin, who used her right hand to soothe the reddish impression Ricky's grip had left on her skin. She nodded and sighed in acknowledgment of his point. "And don't forget, we'll have eyes on you at school, too," he said, using his eyes to once again direct her attention to Elliott.

"I don't want to be a spy," Elliott said.

"You have a crush on her, Elliott," Ricky said. "That makes you a _de facto_ spy already. The only difference is, now you'll be reporting to someone about her instead of just keeping it to yourself."

"I'm sorry," Elliott said to Caitlin, who sympathized.

Caitlin jumped when she saw Ricky's hand reach over her legs, but when she realized he was just opening the glove compartment in front of her, she managed to calm down, though this calm turned to anxiety when she was pressured to write down her phone number on a pad of paper.

"What time will you call?" Caitlin asked.

"We'll call when we're goddamn ready," Ricky said, folding the slip of paper and sticking it inside his pocket. "Which means if the Seeds are ready at midnight, and you're trying to sleep, too bad, you're getting the call at midnight."

"Fine," Caitlin conceded. "Can I go now?"

Ricky's fingers reached for the unlock button on the side of his door, but before he pressed the button ensuring her freedom, he asked, "Only if you promise not to tell anyone about this."

"I promise," she said, and she noticed Ricky's eyes dart down to see her hands, presumably looking for crossed fingers, before looking back up to her face upon seeing no such thing.

"Good," Ricky said. With a _click_, the car doors opened, and Caitlin excitedly but coolly stepped out of the vehicle and onto the concrete sidewalk in front of her house. She glanced back at her kidnappers, confirming her suspicions that they were still watching her, and then made her way inside without looking back.


	9. Chapter 9

When the black minivan had exited the view from her front windows, Caitlin ran into the kitchen and pulled the cordless phone out from its place on the counter. After dialing Serena's number, she impatiently tapped her thigh with her hand while counting the rings echoing through the house on the other end. "Come on, come on…" Caitlin said. "Pick up…"

Her worries that Serena was too preoccupied to answer ended up being only that, and Serena received the call some five rings later. "Hello?"

"Serena! It's Caitlin."

"Calling to see how things are going with Billy?"

"_No_."

The pause that followed seemed like sufficient evidence that Serena believed her, and so Caitlin began to say what she'd intended to say.

"Serena, what I'm about to tell you is going to sound _crazy_, but you _have_ to believe me."

"Okay," Serena said with noticeable hesitation. "What is it?"

"As I was walking home from school today, these teenagers forced me into their car and drove me to this warehouse downtown. Do you know Elliott Beamer—short kid with glasses? Apparently, after I called him a creep in class yesterday because he was staring at me, he told his cousin Ricky about it, and they seemed to interpret that as a sign that I knew what they _really_ were."

"You were kidnapped?"

"Yeah, but that's not what we should be worrying about. They _are_ Creeps, Serena! I mean, that's what they call themselves."

"At least the name is accurate."

"No, you don't understand!" Caitlin said. "They're—"

Before she could try to explain what the teenagers were, she heard a pound on the kitchen window. She turned to see Eddie standing there, his hand on the glass and his eyes shooting a furious gaze at her.

"_Shit_," Caitlin said.

"What?" Serena said. "What's wrong?"

"I've got to call you back," Caitlin replied, and she slammed the phone down before racing over to the front door to try and prevent Eddie from getting inside.

He'd already set a foot inside by the time she'd circled around to the other side of the house, but in her hurry she managed to whack him in the head by pushing the door back towards a closed position. She heard him cry out in pain as the door collided with his temple, but the victory lasted only for a matter of seconds, as he quickly forced the door open again, an action that was easy for a man who had the combined strength of an older, more muscular person than her as well as that of a oversized lizard.

Standing in the open space of the living room, exposed to a now agitated being she knew could transform and eviscerate her at any minute if it wanted to, Caitlin swallowed and prepared to face the consequences.

"_Who was that?!_" Eddie snapped, pointing towards the kitchen with one hand whilst rubbing his forehead with the other. "_Who were you on the phone with?_"

"I can't even talk to my best friend now?" Caitlin said.

"Not about _us_."

"You don't know that I was telling her about you guys."

"Oh, really?" Eddie said. "You panicked when you saw me."

"I panicked because you were about to come into my house uninvited."

Eddie started to glance around the house, turning his head to see the framed pictures sitting on the bookshelves that surrounded the TV in the living room.

"And you're still not invited," Caitlin remarked. If only he was a vampire, that ruling might have actually meant something.

"Who is that?" Eddie said, walking over the bookshelf and reaching for a photo of Mary-Ann in her police uniform. Caitlin rushed to stop him, but he'd already grasped it and removed it from the shelf. "Is this your _mother_?" he gasped.

"Well…yeah…"

Eddie growled and threw the picture onto the floor as though it were the most disgusting piece of garbage imaginable, which probably wasn't too far off from he and his friends' actual thoughts on law enforcement. Caitlin jumped back and screamed as the glass crinkled on the wooden floor. "She's a _cop_?!" he said, crunching what remained of the frame underneath his sneakers as he slowly walked towards Caitlin.

"I wasn't going to tell her!" Caitlin said. "I swear!"

"Why should I believe you? You've already told your best friend."

"She doesn't know anything!"

"What _does_ she know?"

Caitlin sighed. "Only that you call yourselves Creeps and that you kidnapped me today."

"That's still too much," Eddie said, grabbing Caitlin's throat and throwing her up against the wall. As Caitlin struggled to free herself from his grip, her feet dangling a few inches above the floor, Eddie continued, "You're going to call your friend back and tell her you were only joking. And then you're _never_ going to speak of what you saw today again. Is that understood?"

"_Yes!_" she gasped, and Eddie released her. After coughing and catching her breath, she added, "If I call her back, she's not going to believe me. She knows I wouldn't lie to her like that. In fact, she's probably called the cops already."

"You'd better hope that's not the case," Eddie said, pushing Caitlin back into the kitchen. "Or you and everyone you know are dead." He lifted the phone up and put it in Caitlin's hand. "Call her," he ordered.

Caitlin dialed Serena's number while Eddie watched. This time, Serena was quick to answer. "Hi," she said, not wanting to utter her friend's name out loud and risk her safety. "Forget what I said earlier." She managed an uncomfortable laugh and said, "I was just messing with you!"

"That's not funny, Caitlin," Serena replied. "Your mom's a cop, you should know better than to joke about something like that!"

"Yes, I realize that now. Sorry to give you a scare like that."

"So what was so important that you had to hang up before?"

"What?"

"A few minutes ago. You said 'shit' and then you hung up."

"Oh, that. Yeah—the, um, cookies I was making were in the oven too long."

"Cookies?" Serena said. "You were making cookies? _Without_ my help?"

"What can I say?" Caitlin shrugged. "I live on the edge."

"_Hang up,_" Eddie mouthed to Caitlin, both of them knowing this conversation, much like Eddie himself, was beginning to overstay its welcome.

"Look, if you're thinking of making something for the school bake sale next week—"

"Bake sale?" Caitlin said. "There's a bake sale next week?"

"Yeah, didn't you see the signs posted all over campus?" Serena said. "Next Friday night, to help raise money for…something, I don't know what. Anyway, if you want some help cooking something, just let me know."

"Will do." Caitlin could see the fury returning to Eddie's eyes, and remarked to Serena, "Well, these cookies are burnt beyond belief. I've got some cleaning up to do. See you tomorrow. Bye."

As soon as she'd pressed the red button to erase the connection, Eddie snatched the phone from between her fingers and tossed it haphazardly in the general direction of its place on the counter. Turning back to Caitlin, he warned her, "This had better not happen again."

"It won't," Caitlin grumbled.

"Good," he said, bumping his shoulder into hers as he reversed course to the front door where he'd made his way inside.

Glancing at the destroyed picture frame lying facedown on the floor as she followed Eddie, Caitlin asked, "What am I supposed to tell my parents?"

"A lie," he said, opening the door. "And as far as we're concerned, you'll tell them nothing _but_ lies until we say otherwise." He made one last threatening glance at Caitlin, watching her as she dropped to her knees to remove her mother's photo out of the pile of shattered glass. "We'll see you soon." And then he slammed the door and left.

This time, Caitlin locked the door.


	10. Chapter 10

Serena's finger landed on the colorful sheet of paper posted on the brick wall of a campus building, one of many advertisements of its kind distributed around the school, and she turned to Caitlin and said, "See? I told you there was a bake sale."

"I never doubted you," Caitlin replied. Continuing to read the sign, she added, "I guess they're raising money for the first dance of the year."

"Are you planning on going?"

"To the bake sale, or the dance?"

"Both, I guess."

"Well, I know _you're_ going to the bake sale."

Serena nodded. "That's because I'm the only one of us who can cook."

"You know, you _can_ go without cooking anything," Caitlin said.

"Yeah, I could, but that wouldn't give me any street cred."

"Since when does baking stuff give people street cred?"

"You're mom's a cop, she can tell you." She chuckled at her little joke, then said, "But seriously, why wouldn't I go without cooking anything? The question is: are _you _going?"

"Yes," Caitlin said, "but I _won't_ be cooking anything."

"After what happened yesterday, I think we can all be grateful for that."

Upon mentioning of this incident, Caitlin struggled to withhold the truth of what had actually happened yesterday at her house. Even though Elliott was nowhere in sight, Caitlin was convinced that he would somehow find out if she told Serena anything, and considering the creatures she and her loved ones would be up against if such information were to reach Ricky, she figured, rightly or wrongly, it would be best to keep her word with the Creeps—at least until an opportunity in her favor presented itself.

"What's the matter?" Serena said, noticing Caitlin's anxiety. Before she could answer, Serena speculated: "You're not sore about me insulting your cooking ability, are you? If you are, I'm sorry."

"It's not that," Caitlin said, shaking her head.

"Then what is it?" Serena glanced at the sign again, and more speculation followed. "Is it the dance?"

"What?" Caitlin scoffed. "No! I don't care about that!"

"You mean you don't have even a mild curiosity about it?"

"Is there some reason I should?"

"Sure. It's the very first dance of our middle school careers."

"You're thinking about the boys we might see there?"

"No," Serena said, "but apparently you are."

"If you can make wildly inaccurate guesses about what I'm thinking," Caitlin said, "there's no reason I can't do the same with you."

"Fine. Then what's bothering you?"

Caitlin opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

"I'm your best friend, Caitlin," Serena reminded her. "You can tell me anything."

With a sigh, Caitlin answered Serena's query, although the issue she ended up sharing was not the one that was really putting her on edge. "It's my Mom," she said. "She's still hung up on her fear of snakes and won't let me get one."

"That sucks," Serena said. Though they both knew this statement was true, the dissonance between Caitlin's anxiety and what she claimed was causing it had not gone unnoticed. "Know what else sucks?"

"There are a lot of answers I could give to that question…"

"That you won't just admit to me that you like Billy."

"Oh," Caitlin said. After taking a moment to figure how best to carry on the conversation, she crossed her arms and said, "Well, be prepared for the suckiness to continue, because I'm not going to admit it, because it's not true."

"What if he was actually nice to you?"

"Then I might actually like him back, but as we both know that isn't the case, you can rest easy, Serena."

"But if he _was_ nice to you?" Serena said. "Say, because he wanted to know more about you and I hadn't told him anything?"

"Wouldn't that make it your fault then," Caitlin said, "for not telling him anything in the first place?"

"That's beside the point."

"But if he _was_ nice to me under those circumstances, sure, I might like him back," Caitlin said with a shrug.

Serena sighed and shook her head. "And steal my thunder again."

"Look, Serena, you're my best friend, and I love you, but I'm not trying to steal your thunder. If Billy happens to like someone else, you should just learn to accept it."

"Even if that someone else is you?"

"So what if it is?" Caitlin said. "I don't like him back!"

That's when the bell rang, and the girls would have to separate until the day ended.

"See you after school?" Serena asked somewhat rhetorically.

"Yeah, but I'm going to walk over to Northeast Park instead of going straight home. I need to blow off some steam. You want to come with me?"

"I didn't bring my binoculars," Serena said.

"All right," Caitlin said. "Guess we'll meet up and then talk on the phone later."

"I guess so."

With the intention of regrouping at the eastern gates as usual after school, Caitlin and Serena said their goodbyes until the afternoon and headed off to their homeroom classes.

* * *

The day, as it turned out, had been mostly uneventful by the time Caitlin and Serena saw each other again. In science class, Billy restrained himself from acting like too much of a jackass, and perhaps more importantly, Elliott seemed to pay little to no attention to her. This wasn't news she shared with Serena, of course, but the knowledge that things were relatively normal compared to the day before was a relief. Still, the fear of being suddenly abducted again, made worse by the fact that her captors were still out there, plotting, tingled in the back of her neck and stung like ice. That was part of her reason for going to the park after saying goodbye to Serena, and as soon as she raised the binoculars she'd pulled out her backpack to look at a flock of birds moving through a tree, she was calm.

While trying to catch a snake could be a fast and noisy endeavor, birding was just the opposite—a relaxed and quiet affair. The barks coming from the dog park and the shouting of kids on the playground were drowned out as Caitlin zeroed her focus on the feathered beings traveling through the trees in the park, many of them heading south to the Caribbean or South America for the winter.

Fall migration had begun, and though the myriad warblers passing through often lacked the bright colors they'd had in the spring when they were moving in the opposite direction, they remained among the more handsome of North American bird groups. The fiery black-and-red contrast of a male American Redstart fanning his tail; the tiny, sharp-billed blue-and-yellow Northern Parula; the bright green back and pale gray belly offsetting the chestnut flanks of a Chestnut-sided Warbler. Some, like the tree-creeping Black-and-white Warbler or the ground-hopping Palm Warbler, would stay for the winter (it was Florida, after all), while others, such as the Yellow-throated Warbler or the marsh-dwelling Common Yellowthroat, were resident in the area. Arguably the most abundant warbler anywhere, another winter visitor to Gainesville, the Yellow-rumped, had yet to arrive.

But warblers were not the only birds in these trees, just as Caitlin was not the only birder in this park. The strain on her neck of constantly looking up to study a flock necessitated periodic rests, and it was during one of these rests that she noticed another figure across the way also aiming binoculars up into the trees. Always eager to meet another nature enthusiast, especially one her own age, Caitlin had just started to walk over to meet him, when she realized that the boy was Billy, and abruptly stopped.


End file.
